My visit to Australia and New Zealand - IV

'Good luck Maite' said the immigration officer and welcomed me to Australia. Clear blue skies, lush green landscapes, spotlessly clean and beautiful beaches, fresh breeze, surfers, filled restaurants, families in the parks and people having a great time everywhere....Australia is all this and more.

On this trip of mine I visited Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane. I found each place to be beautiful but had time to spend only in Melbourne and Sydney. I might again be biased to these cities as I had time to explore only these but I must say that they were amazing. The whole atmosphere is so vibrant, so full of life. People here truly live life to the fullest. I enjoyed my walks at the harbours, the beaches and the bustling cities (the local lingo for down town) in Sydney and Melbourne. The few places that stand out were the Melbourne Docklands, Gold Coast's beach and coast line, the beaches in all the cities, the famous Harbour bridge and last but surely not the least the iconic Opera House in Sydney.



Have compiled a few pics from the above. Enjoy !

Melbourne Docklands

Fire show at Crown Plaza Hotel - Melbourne
This hotel also has a casino, multiplex, shopping complex, restaurants and a beautiful water front location. The fire show, although simple is excellent. This runs every evening on specific schedules.

......and as if that wasn't enough, I was in Melbourne a couple of days bafore the F1 race. This gave me the opportunity to see the sexiest of Ferraris just parked on the road by the line of eateries. Here's one of them -

One of Sydney's beautiful beaches -

I did some bird watching....literally !

A view of Sydney city from the Cruise -

Gold Coast's beautiful landscape and coast line -

The Iconic Harbour bridge and Opera House !

My visit to Australia and New Zealand - III

The next morning I woke up and was amazed at the beauty of this place. Auckland is a picturesque place with a lot of greenery and fresh air. What a change from the pollution in Hyderabad.

I took a small little tour in Auckland and visited the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere - Sky Tower ! That's where the Indian cricket team did the sky walk recently. Here's the pic of the structure from close and from a distance -

......and here are the pics from the top -

Auckland also has an amazing aquarium with unique variety of fish. Sample this -














These guys also replicated Antarctica and have migrated Penguins as well. Check this out for yourself -













After a long day I stopped by at 'Bolliwood' (yes, that's the way its spelt) Indian restaurant. The food was good and so was the ambiance. Besides, its named Bolliwood...what more incentive to go have a bite.








110 Ponsonby Road,
Ponsonby, Auckland
Tel - 376 6477
http://www.bolliwood.co.nz/



I built up expectations for my next stop - Christchurch. Although, it was a nice place as well but wasn't as beautiful as Auckland. I might be wrong on this one as I really didn't have any time to look around. With another day's work at Christchurch I left New Zealand with fond memories of the beauty of the land and looked forward to my next destination - Australia !